The Final Batch of JFK Files Reveals the CIA Received an Assassination Warning in 1962

After a confusing extended rollout, the last batch of previously confidential Kennedy assassination files has now been made public. Though the recent release includes papers that have been heavily redacted, in that final group of documents is a memo that reveals the CIA got a tip about a plot to assassinate JFK in 1962, more than a year before the president was shot and killed.

The memo, which was uncovered by CNN, is difficult to read, having faded with time, but it was written to J. Lee Rankin, then general counsel for the Warren Commission, and describes an anonymous telephone conversation on October 15, 1962, during which the caller stated that "'Iron Curtain Countries' planned to pay a hundred thousand dollars for the assassination of President Kennedy."

The document also describes a call the CIA received in the days following the Kennedy assassination by a man "believed to be the same person" as the 1962 telephone call.

"It appears that the caller, who professes to be the Polish chauffeur of a Soviet Embassy car in Canberra [Australia] first phoned in over a year ago, on 15 October 1962, repeat 1962," writes Richard Helms, the author of the memo and then the CIA deputy director.

"At that time, he told a story about five Soviet submarines carrying 400 to 500 Soviet soldiers on their way to Cuba. One purpose of this troop movement, he said, was to support the Governor of Mississippi. He added that there was a plot to pay one hundred thousand dollars to kill President Kennedy. Behind the plot, he said, were the 'Iron Curtain countries,' and 'communist men in England, Hong Kong, and probably other countries.'"

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At the time, the CIA dismissed the claim, calling it "a crank," but also said "this conclusion...cannot be confirmed."